Thaw the Ice
by shadowsilv3r
Summary: (New summary in light of redirection in terms of plot): On a field exam that went horribly wrong, Weiss Schnee must come to terms with changes to her life, both emotional and physical. Thanks to that same incident, Jaune Arc must figure out how to both help her and overcome the guilt. Rated M for suggestive content
1. Cold Exteriors

**I won't say this is my best work, I'm not very proud of it to be honest. But I will do a follow up chapter if this gets enough attention. So please review, even if it is only to say that it sucks.**

**Chapter 1**

**Cold Exteriors**

'_Just great, simply perfect Weiss, of all the ways you were going to die, it had be like this,'_ The Heiress scolded herself as she glared at the collapsed cave entrance, _'You're weaponless, your aura is down, you have a broken wrist, and worst of all you're trapped in a cave with HIM,'_

"Hey Weiss? Can you help me with my shoulder, I think it's dislocated," Jaune Arc asked as he stood next to the Heiress, who simply punched the boy hard in the shoulder with her good hand, knocking him on his backside and relocating his shoulder at the same time, "Thank you," he managed to grunt out of his mouth.

Weiss then began trying to move the boulders out of the way with her good arm to no avail; so she conceded to sit down on the hard rock ground and think of what she did to the universe to deserve such a horrendous fate.

V

That winter day had begun as it had any other, with Ruby blowing her coach whistle in Weiss' ear, the red themed leader giving the usual announcement of 'Good morning Team RWBY', and them still somehow almost be late to class.

And the whole morning went on in the usual routine up until lunch, which had seemed normal at first. Nora was over exaggerating about a recurring dream she's been having to Teams RWBY and JNPR. Ruby was eating an unhealthy amount of sweets at an unnatural speed. Blake was reading one of her books. You know the usual.

Then Ozpin gave an unexpected announcement on the speakers throughout beacon, "Attention all first year students, your next class after lunch is to be canceled and you are all to report to the auditorium,"

"Wonder what that's about?" Yang Inquired.

"It's probably a test of some kind, Midterms are coming up after all" Ren guessed.

"Argh, I hate tests," Yang groaned. Weiss rolled her eyes, she herself wasn't one to enjoy a test, but she didn't have any problem with them either.

"Actually, I heard some of the older students chatting about some sort of special challenge for the first years coming up," Pyrrha pointed out.

"Whatever the test is, Ren and I will ace it together," Nora exclaimed, "But not together-together,"

"Why do you always have to point that out Nora?" Jaune asked with genuine curiosity.

"Oh… a, no r-reason," Nora quickly stammered out, then wanting to shift the conversation to anything else she quickly said aloud, "So Jaune, how's your plan to woo Snow Angel?"

"Excuse me?" Weiss asked in a tone that was a mixture of incredulousness and anger. Jaune slunk into his chair and Pyrrha sighed and rubbed her head.

"Oh… was that supposed to remain a secret?" Nora asked innocently.

Ren shook his head, "Nora, we really need to work on your subtly,"

"My who's-a-ma-what-now?" Nora asked, genuinely confused. Ren released a sigh in defeat.

Weiss didn't hear Nora and Ren's conversation on the definition of subtly, as she was busy glaring holes into the blonde goofball who was still shrinking into his chair. Weiss then asked threateningly "Care to elaborate Arc?"

Then of course Yang got into the conversation.

"Yea Vomit Boy, tell us on how you plan on getting into Snow Angel's combat skirt?" At that comment Jaune slunk so far down that he actually fell out of his chair and onto the floor; while Weiss turned her ice cold glare at the brawler.

"Quiet you lewd fiend," Weiss grumbled before turning her gaze back to Jaune's seat as he was pulling himself off of the floor, "Explain yourself Arc,"

"Well ah… you s-see," Jaune began weakly, Weiss simply raised an eyebrow that silently said 'you better start talking' so the blonde boy cleared his throat, "I kind of wrote a checklist of things to do for our first date and…"

"Excuse me, but what makes you think I would _ever_ go on a date with you?" When Jaune gave no answer, Weiss immediately said "That question wasn't rhetoric,"

"Ah… I-

At that exact moment, the lunch bell rang and everyone started filing out of the cafeteria. Jaune took the opportunity to flee for his life with Pyrrha worriedly following after him.

"Flirtatious dunce," Weiss muttered to herself as she and the rest of Team RWBY started filing out of the cafeteria as well.

"Weiss, can I ask you a question?" Ruby asked as they headed towards the Auditorium.

"You technically just did," Weiss replied sharply.

"Well can I ask you another question?" Ruby asked.

"You realize that you- argh, fine,"

"Are you not attracted to boys?"

"WHAT!" Weiss shouted, getting a quick glance from some of the students around them in the hallway. Weiss lowered her voice menacingly, "Did you just ask if I was gay?"

"Uh… I don't know, maybe?" Ruby replied nervously, "I was just wondering why you aren't flattered by Jaune affections,"

"Flattered?" Weiss asked incredulously, "let me explain why I'm not 'flattered' by him or is inane advances: It's because he's an idiotic, uncoordinated, flirtatious, annoying, childish, foolish, unskilled, obsessive dunce, understand?"

"I guess," Ruby said simply.

"Good, then let's never discuss this again," Weiss stated with atone of dismissal.

Once they entered the Auditorium Team RWBY took their seats on a bench in the front row as Ozpin stood on the stadium with a microphone in front of him. The headmaster waited until everyone was seated before he began speaking.

"Students, as you know you have been assigned into teams, and as midterms are coming up I'd assume that all of you and your respective teams have learned how to coordinate together on the field of battle." Ozpin went silent as the auditorium buzzed lightly with conversation as they speculated one what the Professor was going on about, with a clear of his throat the room turned silent again as Ozpin continued, "But just because you have a team does not mean you will always be alongside them in real combat, and might find yourself working with someone of whom you are unfamiliar with,"

Again the room buzzed with conversation until Ozpin cleared his throat yet again and got straight to the point, "So for your midterm exams, you will be randomly grouped together with members of different teams from the one you regularly work with to complete your assignment,"

This time the buzz was a roar as a majority of the students stood up from their seats and expressed their protest at the decision.

Ozpin cleared his throat one last time and everyone remained silent as he produced a scroll and started reading out the temporary teams, "Team One, will consist of Cardin Winchester, Lie Ren, Ruby Rose, and Selena Umbra, led by Ruby Rose,"

"You've got to be kidding me!" Cardin's voice was heard from the somewhere in the back.

"Team Two will consist of-

On and on Professor Ozpin reformed the teams into their temporary ones for the midterms, Weiss waited patiently for her name to be called along with her new temporary team. Then Ozpin got to the last Team.

"Team Twenty-four, Jaune arc, Sky Lark, Velvet Scarlatina, and Weiss Schnee, led by Jaune Arc,"

"Ohhh… tough break Weissy," Yang, who was sitting next to the Heiress, said mockingly before chuckling to herself, "Have fun being underneath Vomit Boy's command, should I buy you an umbrella?"

Weiss became so angry that her mind practically went into shut down; she was grouped up with a rotten bully, a shy, most likely incompetent, Faunus, and worst of all, that worthless dunce as their leader.

Once Ozpin finished his reassignment of the teams, the students stood up and dispersed ton look for their new temporary teams. Weiss sighed as she figured she might as well get together with her temp team and get it over with.

Finding Velvet was relatively easy, the heiress simply had to look for the bunny ears and met up with the Faunus.

"Y-You're Weiss S-Schnee… right?" The timid Faunus asked nervously as they met up.

"What was your first clue?" Weiss responded coldly, not even bothering to be civil with the easily frightened girl.

"u-um a…," Velvet was about to answer when Weiss held up her hand to silence the Faunus and said,

"That was rhetorical," Velvet hastily bowed her head in apology until a pair of hands grabbed hold of her rabbit ears from behind and pulled them back; much to the Faunus' pain.

"Ouch, that hurts!" Velvet cried out as Sky Lark chuckled madly.

"Better get used to it Cottontail, we're stuck together for today," Sky said menacingly as he tugged a little harder.

"Hey!" Weiss shouted at the bully, "What do you think you're doing?"

"What? You want a turn?" This got Sky a hard slap across the face, forcing his to let go of Velvet's ears so he could protect his burning cheek, "What was that for?"

"For being a retarded dunce!" Weiss scolded the bully with a finger pointed at his face, she then gestured to the Faunus cowering behind her, "Sure, she's a Faunus, but that doesn't mean you can just pick on her whenever you want!"

"Never knew the granddaughter of Archibald Schnee was a black sheep," Sky quickly remarked with a cold glare of his own.

"What is THAT supposed to mean!" Weiss demanded.

"How does your father feel about his only child being a Faunus lover?" the bully asked, this got his other cheek smacked just as hard.

"How DARE you," Weiss scolded, "Don't pretend to know me or my family!"

"Okay, break it up, you two!" Came an authoritative voice to Weiss' left; she quickly turned her head to yell at whoever had the audacity to command her only to see Jaune standing their glaring daggers at Sky who, shockingly, hide behind Weiss along with Velvet, who quickly stepped out of grabbing distance from the bully.

With the dispute over, Jaune pulled out his scroll and opened it to read a message as he said, "Okay, I got the instructions for our midterm, so I suggest we follow them and get this over with so we can go back to our teams,"

"And who put you in charge?" Weiss asked coldly as she glared at the knight.

"Ozpin, or have you forgotten already," Jaune replied coldly; much to Weiss' irritation.

"Who do you think you are to talk to me like that?" Weiss demanded.

"Your team leader for this exam, which if you want to ace, I suggest you cooperate, as cooperation is one of the criteria we are graded for," Jaune stated. This actually shocked Weiss internally; she had never seen the dunce act so serious; not that she expressed her shock.

"Wha-what is the assignment?" Velvet asked Jaune cautiously.

"We are to head out into the emerald forest and bring back the head of an Alpha Beowolf; we will be graded on our teamwork and efficiency on the kill, as well on our ability to track it," Jaune stated as he deactivated his scroll and gestured for his new team to follow him to the cliff face, whom did with varying degrees of reluctance.

V

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful; up until they found a group of Beowolves through some snow tracks in the snow. When they saw the alpha Jaune and Weiss broke off from Velvet and Sky to chase it down into the cave just as it collapsed. And here they were, trapped, the only silver lining being that the collapse also killed the Alpha Beowolf. Said beast's head was currently crushed under a large boulder.

"Is your scroll working?" Weiss was drawn from her reverie by Jaune's question. She silently reached into her pouch and pulled out her scroll; finding it with a cracked screen as it refused to turn on.

"No, yours?" Weiss asked.

"no…" was all Jaune said as he walked over towards the Beowolf corpse and picked up his sword in his left hand, his right still recovering from the dislocation.

"What are you doing?" Weiss asked as Jaune was about to stab his blade into the Beowolf's gut.

"It's going to get dark and it's already freezing cold in here, so we need to keep warm," Jaune said as he roughly stabbed the beast's gut and cut it open, releasing its guts.

"You're not suggesting that we…" Weiss couldn't finish her complaint as she struggled to hold back her stomach and try to look anywhere but at the Grimm's split organs.

Jaune put his sword aside as he stood up and said sardonically, "Would you rather we huddle for warmth?"

"It would be mildly more preferable," Weiss muttered as she managed to regain control of her stomach. Jaune sighed as he walked over to the heiress and sat beside her against the cave wall, he was about to up his arm around her shoulders when she swatted his hand away, "What do you think you're doing?"

"Huddling for warmth," Jaune pointed out.

"Well do it with as little contact as possible," Weiss demanded.

"The point is to have as much contact as possible," Jaune pointed out. This cause Weiss to concede and let him wrap his arm around her shoulders, she then wrapped her own arms around Jaune's waist while being mindful of her broken wrist.

"If you try anything Arc, I'll castrate you," Weiss threatened as she snuggled closer as the cold started to really set in.

"Really Weiss, you really think I'd try something?" Jaune asked.

"I-It's all you boys e-ever th-think about," Weiss stuttered through her now chattering teeth. Jaune pulled away from Weiss despite the cold so he could glare at her in the eye.

"All us b-b-boy's e-ever-r th-think ab-b-bout?" Jaune repeated, sounding hurt but angry, "D-Did you e-ever th-think th-that someone m-might have s-s-s-simply wanted-d a d-d-date with someone as b-beautiful as y-you,"

Weiss scoffed at Jaune as they two reluctantly huddled again for warmth. Hours passed in silence as the two struggled to keep warm. Their consciousness faded in and out as the cold overwhelmed them. Violent shivers soon overcame them as they tried as hard as possible to keep warm.

"You th-think they'll f-f-f-find us-s?" Jaune asked out of the blue, his breath visible in the cold air.

"V-Velvet and Sk-Sky s-s-saw us get t-t-trapped, with-th any luck, th-they will have reached B-B-B-Beacon f-f-f-f-for help," Weiss reasoned as she struggled to remain conscious.

"J-Jaune?" Weiss asked meekly.

"Y-Yes Weiss-s-s?" Jaune replied.

"W-Why are y-you s-s-so interested-d in me?" Weiss asked as she struggled to keep her eyelids open. She couldn't feel her extremities anymore, "W-When I-I've b-been so-o-o m-mean t-to-o-o y-you,"

"B-B-Because I-I c-can s-see passed-d the c-c-cold exterior-r-r," Jaune said weakly, "B-Because I c-can s-see th-that y-your j-just lonely a-and…"

Weiss looked up to see Jaune struggling to remain conscious; his lips and ears were blue and his breath was becoming, much like she was feeling right now.

Right before she lost consciousness, she could swear that she heard what sounded like rocks crumbling…


	2. Frostbite

**I needed to find a way to make this Jaune/Weiss (White moon? Schnarc? Archnee?) unique. So hate me for it, love me for it, this story really isn't my major priority right now, I only updated quickly because I promised a follow up chapter if it got popular, which it kind of did by my terms.**

**Chapter 2**

**Frostbite**

The next thing Jaune knew he was the fact that he couldn't move, vague recollection of slowly freezing to death would account for that. But then he immediately realized that he was surrounded in incredible warmth. He felt his bare chest touching soft fabric tightly wrapped around him.

'That would account for the inability to move,' Jaune's barely conscious mind reasoned.

'Weiss… WEISS!' his slow moving mind kicked into overdrive at the worry that that one name conjured. He opened his eyes, much to their displeasure form the bright light, and sat up as straight as possible in the tight wrapping of blankets. He found himself in the school infirmary, a place he was well familiar with thanks to Cardin, surrounded by a startled Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren at the edge of the bed he now sat up in.

"Nurse, he's up!" Pyrrha called as Ren and Nora each put a reassuring and restraining hand on his shoulders on the JNPR leader.

"Jaune, relax," Ren said steadily as he and Nora eased Jaune onto his back as he calmed down. A Nurse soon entered the room thanks to Pyrrha's call and proceeded to do a check up on Jaune while asking him questioned about how he currently felt physically.

Jaune admitted that he felt warm and a little sluggish, but his fingers and toes were a little numb, the Nurse assured it was a mild case of frostnip, and said that permanent damage was unlikely.

"How is Weiss?" Jaune asked when the nurse finally finished her questioning and examination.

Silence was his answer as the Nurse and his team looked worriedly at each other, Jaune didn't like those looks at all, until finally the nurse spoke up.

"Miss Schnee has suffered from a far worse case of Hypothermia then you have Mr. Arc, we are doing everything we can to help her and we think she will recover and wake up soon, only…"

"Only what?" Jaune asked.

The nurse continued, "She suffered a terrible case of frostbite in her left hand, which also suffered a broken wrist, so we had to perform surgery, she will be able to keep most of her hand-

"MOST of her hand?" Jaune interrupted incredulously.

"Yes, her thumb, and the tip of her middle and index fingers all suffered from Gangrene, and we had to amputate the dead extremities," The nurse explained, then bowed her head as she offered her condolences and left the team alone.

"…" the room was quiet as team JNPR remained quiet, even usually cheerful Nora was at a loss for words. Finally it was, shockingly, Ren who spoke first.

"The nurse said it was Weiss' left hand right?" everyone nodded, fearful of where Ren was going with this, "Isn't she left handed?"

"Yea… she is," Pyrrha whispered just loud enough for the team to here.

"She could always… you know, use her right hand?" Nora suggested, getting some cold glares at her as Ren explained.

"She'll have poor dexterity in her none dominate hand, so she won't be able to wield a weapon in it efficiently, let alone fight with it,"

"Wait," Jaune interrupted, "Doesn't that mean she can't become a huntress?"

"Not without a lot of rehabilitation and practice with her non-dominate hand she can't," Pyrrha explained solemnly.

Jaune snapped. He shoved the blankets off of him, shocked to find himself in nothing but his pants, but only for a moment as he tried to stand up. He would have nearly fallen over had Pyrrha not grabbed a hold of him.

"Jaune, what are you doing?" Pyrrha asked as she tried to get Jaune to lie back down on the bed.

"I need to get to Weiss; I need to see for myself, I need to apologize-

"Apologize? Jaune, it was a case of Frostbite, it wasn't your fault," Ren said, but Jaune wouldn't hear any of it.

"No, you don't understand, I was the leader during that mission, I suggested we curl up inside the dead Beowolf for warmth but she refused, had I been more insistent she probably would still have her hand!" Jaune yelled, nearly to tears, he quickly turned away from his team to hide them as he brushed them away.

"Jaune, you can't blame yourself-

"Yes I can Pyrrha," Jaune shouted as he raised his hands for everyone to see, "All I got is frostnip, the nurse even said that permanent damage was unlikely; Weiss lost the use of her left hand, why did she have to loss something so vital to her skills and I get simple numbness?!"

Jaune then sat back down on the bed as he muttered, "At least I can afford to lose my hands,"

"Jaune don't say that!" Pyrrha said more forcefully then she intended; but it didn't seem to have phased the blonde one bit.

"Look at me Pyrrha, I have been training with you for an entire semester and I barely have a hang of the basics, Weiss has been training for years and had phenomenal skill, all of which is gone now!" Jaune shouted with extreme hatred towards the cruel irony of the fact that the one with the least skill gets to keep it while the one with the best skill loses everything, "I-I'm sorry, I just want to be alone right now guys,"

Jaune's team politely respected his desire for privacy. As the team left, Jaune laid back in bed as he thought of this surprising turn of events.

V

Jaune hadn't realized he'd fallen asleep until he had awakened five hours later. He simply laid in bed thinking about the recent events in his head over and over again. Eventually the nurse came back to check up on him; following the usual routine lines of questioning on how he felt and examining his condition. Jaune soon asked if Weiss was up yet, to which the nurse said she was awake in the next room, but didn't want to receive visitors yet, she didn't even want to see her team.

'She's probably too ashamed to see them,' Jaune thought, 'or simply didn't want their sympathy'

It was getting late so the nurse turned in for the night leaving Jaune alone in his bed. After a few minutes Jaune got up and pulled on his clothes, his team had brought him a set earlier, and made his way to the adjoining room where Weiss was.

Jaune slowly opened the door so as not to startle her; he poked his head into the room and found the heiress looking away from him towards the window outside, night had fallen by then and the shattered moon was out, at the pinnacle of its orbit, showing the full extent of the damage it had received.

Weiss herself currently had her hair down, a cascade of pristine white that seemed to actually glow in the moonlight. Jaune soon turned his gaze to her hand, which was all bandaged up, but he could still tell that her thumb was missing. Every now and then he would see her whole body shiver, quick and sudden, but would stop as immediately as it had begun.

"Weiss…" Jaune whispered. At first nothing happened as she didn't seem to move beyond the shivering, Jaune was about to speak up thinking that she hadn't heard him when she spoke.

"What do you want?" The question was monotonous and devoid of the usual ire that was accustom to her demeanor.

"Weiss I'm so sorry," Jaune offered, but Weiss still refused to even look at him or acknowledge his words at first.

"For what?"

"For you losing your hand," Jaune explained. He then notice Weiss lift her bandaged hand to her face. Jaune still couldn't see her expression so he had no idea what was going through her mind.

A few minutes passed in silence until Jaune decided to leave, but then Weiss spoke, this time with a hint of ire in her voice, "Why were you so lucky,"

Jaune froze at the question. He truly wanted to answer Weiss' question, but found no answer to give, "I don't know,"

Weiss gave no response in return as she leaned back onto the bed, her face still turned away from Jaune as she seemed to drift off to sleep. Jaune soon left the room in silence and went to bed.

It was then that a fully awake Weiss let the tears flood her eyes.

**Author's note:**

**Okay, I will admit it; I think I suffer from a 'mutilation fetish' as my friend puts it, in my stories.**


	3. Frozen

**For some reason I'm putting a lot of priority on this story. Also thanks to whoever added my story to the 'Best of RWBY Fanfiction' community; I feel honored that this story is counted among the best in this fandom.**

**Chapter 3**

**Frozen**

"I'm telling you, it was like Cardin wanted an F!" Ruby complained to the rest of Teams RWBY and JNPR at lunch. It had been four days since the exams and everyone was currently eating in the cafeteria, well, except for Weiss.

The Heiress had spent the four days in bed sulking, since it was the end of the semester and she was a straight A student she could afford to miss out on a few classes. She'd rarely leave the dorm. If it weren't for her team bringing her meals everyday she would have been starving.

"He would argue with every command I gave, he refused to work with us as a team, he even caused a tree to collapse, nearly crushing Ren!" Ruby then looked to the stoic pistol wielder who nodded in agreement, Ruby then continued her tirade, "I swear I was going to break his legs by that point if we weren't in the middle of a fight!"

Jaune wasn't listening to Ruby's complaints about Cardin, he simply picked at his food while being lost in thought.

"Hey, Weiss you're up!" Jaune heard Ruby say, causing him to look up from his uneaten food to see the Heiress walking towards the table holding a tray of food in her right hand, her left still covered in bandages. Without a word Weiss took her usual seat between Ruby and Blake. With her in close range to everyone, they could get a good look at her, what they saw wasn't encouraging.

Weiss Schnee was a creature of habit that strived for perfection; that often manifested in her appearance, with the obvious exception of her trademark offset ponytail, but said ponytail was nowhere to be seen as her hair remained loose and unkempt, her outfit was wrinkled, she didn't even bother to put on her earrings or her necklace, her eyes were bloodshot from crying and she had bags under said eyes suggesting that she hadn't been sleeping well either. In short, she was a mess.

Everyone remained quiet as she silently ate her food with mild difficulty using her right hand, all somewhat frozen at the sight of her in such a decrepit state. Some of them were more discreet about their observation then others; such as: Blake, Ren and Pyrrha, trying to appear being focused on their food, or reading in Blake's case, while the rest: Nora, Ruby, Yang and Jaune, where blatantly staring at her.

Eventually Weiss put her fork down and glared at everyone as she said coldly, "Go ahead; just say your concerns for me, it won't change anything,"

"Weiss, I'm so sorry," Ruby offered.

"It wasn't your fault," Weiss replied emotionlessly.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Yang suggested.

"Probably not,"

"Are you still going to attend Beacon?" Both teams looked to Nora as she asked perhaps the question most present on everyone's mind, will Weiss stay in Beacon now that she can't fight?

Weiss seemed visibly shaken by Nora's question as she replied, "I don't know, Professor Ozpin said that I will be reevaluated after winter break to see if I can still hold my own in combat, if I pass, I get to stay, if I don't…" The Heiress left the rest unsaid as everyone soaked up her words.

"I'll help you train," Jaune heard someone say; it took him a moment to notice everyone staring at him in disbelief before he figured out it was he who said it. Weiss was the first to speak up.

"Excuse me?" A number of emotions were mixed in with her response; shock, spite, and refusal chief among them.

"Um… Jaune… Can I speak with you for a second?" Pyrrha asked as she stood up. Despite her nervous tone, the look in her eyes said that he'd best not refuse her request. So the blonde knight stood up and followed the amazon out of the cafeteria and into the hallway. Pyrrha then turned to Jaune and got straight to the point, "Look Jaune, I'm going to be honest here, you're not exactly the most qualified person to help train Weiss,"

"Look Pyrrha, I know I'm not the most skilled student in beacon, heck I'm probably the worst," Jaune began, "but that doesn't mean I can't help her,"

"And how is that?" Pyrrha questioned, "You can't exactly teach her anything she doesn't already know,"

"I don't have to teach her anything, "Jaune elaborated, "I'm right handed, I just need to assist her in practicing with her right hand and, if needed, be a practice dummy during her training session,"

"I'm not too sure about this Jaune" Pyrrha admitted.

"Pyrrha, Weiss said the reevaluation is after winter break right?" His partner nodded, "Well winter break is three weeks long and it starts in one week, that gives me nearly a month to help her out; and you've seen her in class, she's smart and a fast learner, at the very least she should be skilled enough to pass the reevaluation in that time right?"

"I guess…" Pyrrha said uncertainly, "If you feel you want to do this,"

Jaune placed his hands on Pyrrha's shoulders as he look her in the eye and said, "I _need _do this,"

"You aren't doing anything without my consent, good luck getting it!" Jaune and Pyrrha nearly jumped out of their skin at Weiss' outburst right next to them. They had no idea she had followed them into the hallway.

"Weiss, please listen-"

"No, I've listened enough, I'm not having this buffoon help me practice, he'll only strew it up," Weiss pointed out with extreme ire in her tone.

"I just want to help is all," Jaune tried to explain, but Weiss wouldn't listen anything of it.

"I don't need help, I'm not some damsel in distress that needs to be babied, I can train on my own," With that the heiress shoved her way passed the two partners and stormed down the hall.

"Weiss-"

"Yet her go," Pyrrha said as she put a reassuring hand on her leader and partner's shoulder, "Just give her some time,"

V

To say Weiss was frustrated was like saying men always stare at Yang's... um… gauntlets. It was incredibly obvious that she was frustrated as she was disarmed for the umpteenth time by the training bot set at the lowest setting, her grip was weak, her arm kept shaking from Myrtenaster's weight, and she kept putting her right foot forward instead of her left like she was supposed to. She couldn't even block the most basic of attack lunges without having the blade knocked out of her hand.

She picked up her weapon and prepared herself as the training bot charged her again. She reached out with her left hand instinctively to try to form the usual hand gesture to summon a glyph only for the bandages and missing digits get in the way. Before she fully realized her error the training bot knocked the rapier out of her hand yet again. She unceremoniously kicked the bot over onto its back. After releasing a frustrated roar at nothing in particular, Weiss fell on her hands and knees and just wept.

Literally everything she had accomplished for the better part of her young life was all gone. Her dreams of becoming a huntress were over; she would fail the reevaluation and return to her family a failure. Her father would callously call her a child for ever chasing her dream of becoming a huntress and he would resume his grooming her as an heiress to the company.

She fell to her side and curled her legs up under her chin as she thought of what her future would hold; of her being stuck behind a desk in some office building with bullet proof windows and security guards following her every step just so the White Fang couldn't kidnap or assassinate her.

"What am I to do?" she whispered to no one.

"Let me help you," Weiss looked up to see Jaune standing over her with his hand outstretched towards her. Weiss quickly looked away and wiped the tears from her face before accepting the offered hand.

"Fine," Weiss admitted as Jaune helped her up, "But if you call me Snow Angel once, I'll kill you,"

Jaune merely chuckled as he gave that smirk she hated so much, "Sure thing Beautiful,"

Weiss was already beginning to regret this.

_**Author's note:**_

**So let the training commence, also, I'm planning on adding sort of bonus chapters that follow some other minor plots featuring the other characters in the RWBY-verse. Just so I don't have to focus strictly on the angst of the main plot.**


	4. Chill Wind

**Chapter 4:**

**Chill Winds**

_Reevaluation T minus 27 Days_

"You've got to be joking?" Weiss was appalled as Jaune showed her his abhorred idea for her first exercise. Unfortunately the look in Jaune's eyes said it was necessary. So Weiss reluctantly conceded and grabbed a hold of it in her right hand. It was hard and stiff in her hand as she simply studied it, not quite sure what to do with it.

"Just give it a few pumps," Jaune instructed.

"I know what to do with it Arc, I've done this before!" Weiss stated coldly. As she put a tighter grip on the lifting weight (What? What did you guys think it was?), and pulled it level with her shoulder, then repeated the motion a few times disinterestedly until she had to ask, "What is the point in this again?"

"You said you can't properly hold Myrtenaster in your right hand partly because of its weight right?" Weiss nodded, so Jaune continued, "So if you practice holding something of equal weight, you should be able to hold your weapon more effectively,"

"I don't find this very effective," Weiss pointed out as she continued what she thought was an irrelevant exercise, "I have only a month to become passable with my right hand, and you have me lifting a simple weight,"

"It's not the only thing we're going to be doing Weiss," Jaune explained as he walked over to a desk in the empty classroom the two now occupied and started setting up some papers, "Once you get tired of the weight lifting, you're going to write an essay,"

"Excuse me?!" Weiss shouted.

"It will help you with your dexterity using your right hand, I want you to try and write as neatly as possible and as quickly as possible," Jaune elaborated.

"What do you want me to write about?"

"You're knowledge on Dust, the weather, the thousand and one reasons why you're head over heels for yours truly, it doesn't really matter," Jaune suggested, mentioning the last suggestion with that intolerable smirk of his.

"That last one wasn't really clever you know," Weiss pointed out as she continued to exercise with the weight.

"Anyway, after that you and I will have a sparring lesson just to see your current skill," Jaune finished, "So, any questions?"

"Yea, do you really think me sparring with you will prove anything about my current skill?"

"We're just doing a baseline, if you can beat me with your right hand easily then you can Spar with Pyrrha next time," Jaune promised as Weiss finished her exercise with the weight and went to sit at the desk Jaune had set up. Jaune then took a seat next to her and pulled out his scroll and set it to the stop watch setting.

"How much to I have to write?" Weiss questioned.

"Mmhhh, three whole pages, front and back, remember, I'll be timing you and I'll have Blake read it later to score it for neatness," Jaune explained, "also, no erasing to correct mistakes,"

"WHAT!"

"And go,"

Weiss then started writing. It wasn't something completely out of her element; she wrote essay's all the time, it's just that she had never written with her right hand before and found her hand writing to be sloppy at best, her lowercase n's all looked like lowercase h's and her letters were crooked and better resembled children doodles then actually words. By the time she finished she was completely frustrated.

"Forty-nine minutes and thirty-eight seconds," Jaune said as Weiss finished. Next was the sparring lesson.

The two stood at opposite ends of the classroom with their weapons raised as Jaune went over the rules, "Okay, you just have to disarm me and the sparring will be over, no using your glyphs as this will be a test of your swordplay, we will restart if I get a hit on you, okay?"

"Sure," was all Weiss said.

With that Jaune held his longsword in both hands, not bothering to use his shield as he figured that wouldn't be necessary. Weiss did a mental check up to make sure her posture was good, only putting her left foot forward to accommodate her right hand instead. The two simply circled each other as they both remembered their varying degrees of training. Both sizing up each other's strengths and looking for an opening.

Jaune, even with his limited knowledge in swordplay, knew that Weiss' pasture was well guarded, if a little unsteady given her required usage of her non-dominate hand. He figured she could block any attack he threw at her, but at the cost of getting disarmed.

Weiss then went in for an opening in Jaune's own defense and thrust forward with Myrtenaster. Jaune barely had time to knock away the attack, throwing Weiss' arm outward leaving her open for an attack that Jaune took with a stab of his own. The tip of his sword hitting her midsection, were it not for Weiss' fully charged aura he might have hurt her.

"Argh," Weiss scoffed before she regained her composure. She can't believe Jaune managed to get an attack on her.

"Okay, let's restart," Jaune said as they took their places again. This time Jaune was the first to attack, Weiss instinctively brought her weapon up for a block only to have the weapon knocked out of her grasp; Jaune didn't even bother poking her with his sword.

"I bet you're simply enjoying this, aren't you Arc?" Weiss scolded was they took their places yet again.

"Under normal circumstances yes," Jaune admitted, "But I'm here to help you improve, not myself,"

Jaune then thought for a bit before he got an idea, "Why don't you try dodging my attacks? Until you master blocking again,"

"That's… actually a good idea Arc," Weiss said in what sounded like approval. They started again with Juane taking the initiative and striking first, Weiss dodged to the side and thrust out with her weapon before Jaune could recover, getting him in the side.

"Good job," Jaune complimented as they continued their sparring…

V

It had taken four more rounds of sparring for Weiss to disarm Jaune, by then they were both exhausted from the training and went to get some lunch as it was nearing noon. As they made their way down the hall the air was surprisingly more pleasant between them.

"Thanks again for the dodging tip, I can't believe I hadn't thought of that," Weiss admitted, as they entered the cafeteria and got in line for lunch.

"Yea well the important thing is that you're not hopeless- Weiss gave Jaune a dirty look at that -and that we might be able to help you get good again," the two then took their seats at the usual table with the group of Teams RWBY and JNPR.

"Hey guys, why isn't Ruby and Nora here?" Jaune asked while noting the empty seats.

"Something about finding Ruby's missing weapon," Blake explained without so much as taking her eyes off of the book that was always in her free hand during lunch.

"How was the training?" Pyrrha asked.

"Going okay, if a little unorthodox," Weiss admitted before she picked up her fork and started eating.

"Come on, it wasn't that bad," Jaune complained.

"You had be lifting weights and writing an essay," Weiss pointed out.

"To help with your strength and dexterity," Jaune countered.

"OUCH! STOP IT PLEASE!" everyone turned their gazes towards the sounds to find Team CRDL picking on Velvet yet again. This time Cardin Winchester and Russel Thrush each had an ear in their hands and were pulling them in opposite directions, causing the Faunus extreme pain as the other two members taunted and laughed.

"Monsters," Jaune heard Pyrrha mutter to herself as they watched the cruel event. Before he knew it, Juane was standing up and walking over towards the team of bullies. He vaguely heard his friends calling him back and to not interfere, but he didn't listen as he walked straight up to Cardin and socked him in the face, forcing him to let go of Velvet's ear as he stumbled.

The bully gave a growl as he muttered, "Alright shrimp, I've officially grown tired of you,"

Jaune suddenly found himself on his back with the room spinning. As he regained his vision he saw Cardin with his weapon raised and ready to smash his face in.

'_So this is how it ends,'_ Jaune thought, _'dying while doing the right thing'_

Jaune flinched as the weapon came down, but strangely he felt no pain, bravely opening his eyes to see what was happening, he said a black snowflake shaped glyph hovering just a few inches above him, holding Cardin's mace in place.

"Leave him alone you dunce!" Jaune looked over to his right to see Weiss with her right hand outstretched, maintaining the glyph. She then did a quick motion with her hand to turn the glyph red, forcing Cardin's mace to swing back into his already bruised face, knocking him out cold.

Seeing their leader unconscious; Russel released his grip on Velvet's ear as Sky and Dove picked up Cardin and leave for the infirmary.

With the bullies gone, Jaune pulled himself up and walked over to Velvet, who was currently rubbing her ears soothingly, "You okay?"

"Yea… I think so," Velvet said weakly until she noticed who had saved her, "Didn't you two share an exam team with me?"

"Yea," Jaune then held out his hand, "Jaune Arc, in case you forgot, and my this is my friend Weiss,"

"Pleasure," Velvet said to the heiress, who could have sworn heard a hint of resentment in the Faunus' voice, but chose to ignore it.

"Where's your team Velvet?" Jaune asked.

"They have a different lunch period then I do, lousy schedules and all that," Velvet explained, "They're good guys; I only wish that we shared the same lunch,"

"Well why don't you eat with our teams?" Jaune offered.

"You sure they won't mind?" Velvet asked worriedly.

"Of course they won't mind, none of them are like Cardin," Jaune promised, Velvet eyed the heiress for a brief second, and then nodded her approval.

As the three walked back to their table, Jaune spoke up, "By the way, thanks for the save there Weiss,"

"Don't mention it," Weiss replied as they sat back down at the table.

_**Author's Note:**_

**Sorry for the abrupt ending. The next chapter will be a bonus chapter that is irrelevant to the main plot. The reason I'm doing bonus plot chapters is to have a sense of Beacon life continuing on and not simply revolve around Jaune and Weiss.**


	5. Ruby I

**Short chapter, I'll warn you right now that it doesn't have the same pace and theme as the rest of the story, and is even irrelevant to the main plot. But it is mostly just some fun on my part and will help with some context for certain events in later chapters.**

**Ruby Part 1**

**A Mother's Search for Her Baby**

_Reevaluation T minus 27 days_

The serene peace of the winter morning was shattered for the entire dorm wing of Beacon by the horrid shriek of a distressed mother.

"_WHERE IS CRESCENT ROSE!"_

Well… close enough…

"Argh, sis, can't you complain about your weapon at a more agreeable hour?" The lump underneath the blankets of Yang's bed groaned as the leader of Team RWBY zipped around the dorm room in a frantic search for her beloved.

"Where is she, where is she, where is she, where is she?!" Ruby stated in a crazed mantra as though it would magically summon her weapon, much to the annoyance of Yang and Blake who simply wanted to sleep in on the weekend. Weiss wasn't in the room as she had gotten up early to start her practices with Jaune.

"Maybe Nora stole it as a prank," Blake offered, "She takes people's weapons and hides them for fun,"

With that, Ruby zipped out of the room. Yang poked her head out from under the covers as she asked, "Does Nora really steal other people's weapons for fun?"

"No, just wanted your sister to stop tearing up the room," Blake said as she rolled over to get in a more comfortable spot to sleep.

"Blake?"

"Yea?"

"I love your brain,"

"I love my brain too,"

V

Ruby had burst into Team JNPR's room to find only Ren; as Jaune was training Weiss, and Pyrrha had gone to who knows were.

"Where's the criminal?!" Ruby demanded in a half crazed tone.

"Who?" Ren asked, still half asleep.

"Valkyrie, she stole Crescent Rose and must pay in blood!" Ruby explained maliciously.

"I think she went to the cafeteria to get an early raid on the pancakes," Ren revealed disinterestedly.

With that Ruby zipped out of the JNPR dorm and Ren went back to sleep, oblivious to the fact that he just sent his lifelong friend into a world of pain.

V

The moment Ruby found Nora innocently slurping down pancakes in the cafeteria as though she hadn't committed the worse crime imaginable forced the Reaper to see red. She literally tackled the hammer wielder to the ground and proceeded to bang her head against the floor shouting, "Where is she, where is she, where is she, where is she?!"

"Where is who?" Nora managed to shout out, causing Ruby to at least stop the assault.

"Crescent Rose! Blake said you stole her!" Ruby explained.

"I didn't steal your weapon," Nora said as she rubbed the back of her head, finding a few tender bumps.

"Then who did?!"

"I don't know, did you search everywhere?" Nora questioned, trying to help.

"Yes, I searched my room from top to bottom," Ruby explained.

"Did you search your locker?" Nora watched as Ruby's eyes went blank, she then suddenly grabbed Nora's arm and dragged her with her semblance into the locker room.

The next thing Nora knew was that they were standing in front of Ruby's locker as the scythe wielder feverishly put in her combination and wrenched open her locker.

Only to find no Crescent Rose. But inside was a letter addressed to Ruby; she quickly opened it to find a message saying:

_You'll never find your weapon, just a little payback for humiliating me._

_Cardin Winchester_


	6. Igloo

**Chapter 5:**

**Igloo**

_Reevaluation T minus 26 Days_

Weiss couldn't believe it; her life was getting worse by the day. Some greater force must truly have it out for her to give her such a harsh punishment after she suffered the loss of her left hand. But the heiress took a deep breath and steeled her nerves as she walked through the doors into the one thing she thought she'd never have to partake in.

_Detention…_

It would appear that when Weiss reflected Cardin's mace back into his ugly mug, she had inadvertently broken the bully's nose and gave him a second black eye, the first being caused by Jaune Arc's well aimed right hook. The now temporarily blind racist had reported to the staff his own version of what happened and now Weiss and Jaune both had detention. Luckily she and Jaune managed to explain the correct version of events to the staff and the bully and his crew of lowlifes had detention as well.

'_All this to protect some Faunus,'_ Weiss thought as she entered the nearly empty classroom except for six other participants. Four of which was Team CRDL who all sat in the back row. Cardin's face was all bandaged up. Sitting by the front was Jaune Arc who currently had his head down on the table in what appeared to be shame, or sleep, it was hard for Weiss to tell from across the room. The sixth and final person in the room was Professor Port, who ran detention after class hours.

"Ahh, Ms. Schnee, so glad you could join us," The fat professor proclaimed as Weiss walked to the seat farthest from Jaune or CRDL. The heiress was infuriated with Jaune after the two were notified about their detention and wanted nothing to do with the goofball. As Weiss took her seat the Professor started to talk, "For detention today, I will have you write down an essay about the various hunting and trapping techniques for capturing a Beowolf in the southern Jungles of…

On and on Port talked, the instructions on what to do for today in detention somehow degraded into him blathering about his glory days. The professor got so engrossed in his own story that he didn't even notice half of team CRDL fall asleep. Weiss decided to write that essay Port had originally instructed. Her handwriting was still appalling as she practiced writing about the ways to track the Beowolf; following footprints, looking for claw marks on tree trunks that marked its territory, also on the materials and supplies needed to construct a proper trap for the Grimm and how to lure it into said trap safely.

Weiss was two and a half pages down with her essay when she felt something small and wet land in the back of her hair. She reached into her hair to pull out a spit wad; her face expressed extreme disgust as she tossed it away as quickly as she could. Snickering could be heard from behind her as she turned around to see CRDL chuckling, a straw in Dove's hand.

"Professor Port?" Weiss asked while raising her hand to get the Professor's attention.

"You can ask your questions after I've finished, Ms. Schnee," Port explained before going back to his rant about his glory days.

Weiss grumbled to herself as she succumbed to waiting for the Professor to finish his never ending tale about his youth. She then heard a startled yelp to her left where she saw Jaune pulling out a spit wad from his hair as well, Team CRDL were chuckling yet again.

And all the while Professor Port didn't even notice.

Soon after Weiss felt yet another spit wad collide with her hair, and another, and another. This went on for a few minutes as Weiss struggled to endure it. Just as she thought she couldn't take it anymore, everything exploded.

No, seriously, an explosion went off somewhere out in the hall. This drew the blathering Professor from his lecture about talking on a swarm of Nevermore with a slingshot. He than instructed the class to stay put as he went to investigate the disturbance.

"Wonder what that was about?" Jaune asked no one in particular once Port left the room.

"I don't know, but I'm happy for it!" Cardin called out as Sky, Dove, and Russel all got up and walked towards Jaune and Weiss; cracking their knuckles as they did.

Weiss instinctively reached for her weapon, only to remember that she didn't bring it. Dove and Russel each took a side to surround the Heiress with goofy, malicious grins as they planned to get some revenge on the white themed huntress.

Weiss quickly made a move to stand only to have Dove grab her arms from behind as Russel readied to throw a punch, Weiss just makes out in the corner of her eye Jaune getting grabbed by Sky.

"Let's see how you look with a black eye of your own, Heiress!" Russel taunted as he pulled his fist back and… got knocked over by a blur of red and a cloud of rose petals?

Russel fell to the ground unconscious, before Weiss or Dove could figure out what happened, Dove suffered a similar fate. Weiss watched as a blur of red knocked into Sky, freeing Jaune as well.

"What's going on you idiots?" Cardin called out from the back, uncertain of what happened thanks to his bandaged face. Then suddenly a blur of red later and Cardin was simply gone.

"What… just happened?" Jaune broke the silence with the same question that was on Weiss' mind, when she examined a rose petal she instantly got her answer.

"Ruby?"

V

Later that evening, after explaining to Professor Port what happened, without giving up Ruby, Jaune and Weiss finished their detention and where now walking back to their dorms together in awkward silence until Jaune spoke up, "Sorry about getting you in detention,"

"Hey, I chose to help you out with Cardin," Weiss admitted.

"So you actually do care about my wellbeing," Jaune teased.

"You're my rehabilitation teacher, so don't push your luck Arc," Weiss pointed out coldly.

"Yea keep telling yourself that Beautiful," Jaune teased further, "You know you can't resist this much manliness forever,"

"Believe me, I can," Weiss retorted, though with a hint of humor in her tone.

With that they reached the hallway that held their dorms and parted ways. Weiss walked in to find Blake reading a book in bed, Yang passed out, and Ruby- was that Crescent Rose handcuffed to her ankle?

Shrugging it off as nothing unusual when concerning the fifteen year old, Weiss got changed into her nightgown and crawled into bed.


	7. Cold Breath

**Chapter 6:**

**Cold Breath**

_Reevaluation T minus 22 days_

Jaune was exhausted by the time he finished his early morning practice with Pyrrha. While he was still helping Weiss with her training, he still had to practice with his own mentor to get stronger himself. Learning and remembering all the skills and techniques required to fight efficiently was as taxing on his mind as it was on his body when he had to execute them.

"You're getting stronger Jaune," Pyrrha pointed out as she offered a helping hand to her leader and partner, which he graciously accepted.

"I hope so, going to need to be if I'm to help out Weiss," Jaune stated as he brushed himself off, so he didn't notice the slight frown on Pyrrha's face as he said that, and when he looked back up to his partner he saw a cheerful smile.

"It's a good thing you're helping her train her right hand, she doesn't know how lucky she is," Pyrrha pointed out as the two left the gym, since the cold weather prevented them from training on the usual roof they commandeered the gym for practice.

"I'm just happy to help," Jaune admitted modestly as they traveled down the hallway towards the cafeteria.

"So… no ulterior motives?" Pyrrha asked in a way that sounded cautiously hopeful.

"No… what do you mean by that?" Jaune asked, confused about the question.

"This isn't all just to get Weiss to go out with you is it?" Pyrrha figured getting to the point was best. But she instantly regretted it as Jaune got miffed.

"No Pyrrha, I'm doing this to help her, you'd think I'd take advantage of her being in a tough situation, I'm just helping her, that's it!" Jaune didn't realize he was yelling until he finished, then he felt guilty immediately, "I'm sorry Pyrrha, I didn't mean-

"No, It's alright, I shouldn't have made such an assumption," Pyrrha admitted with a dismissive wave of her hand, "It's just that,"

"Yea,"

Pyrrha looked at Jaune in the eye, she so desperately wanted to tell him how she felt, but couldn't find the strength. Finally she said, "Nothing, nothing important anyway, just glad your intentions are pure,"

Jaune gave a nod of understanding along with a friendly smile; Pyrrha returned the smile before the two went silent as they entered the cafeteria, got their breakfast, and sat down at the usual table with the rest of their team and most of Team RWBY.

"Where's Weiss?" Jaune asked as he and Pyrrha sat down.

"She's in the library," Blake said as she read her ever present book.

"Yea, she wanted to get some extra practice in with her hand," Ruby explained as she cradled Crescent Rose in her arms like a new mother holds her newborn, feverishly looking around for any threats.

V

Weiss was getting frustrated; her handwriting was still too difficult to read as she struggled to rewrite the same sentence. Only to have it appear even worse each time she put pencil to paper. Eventually she gave up and leaned back in her chair and stretched out stiff muscles. She truly felt like she wasn't getting anywhere, or at least not fast enough to pass the reevaluation test anyway, she leaned forward and rested her chin in her palm and simply got lost in her thoughts.

She found herself observing the room with mild interest. Students were silently studying, reading, or casually browsing through bookshelves while others chatted quietly amongst themselves about this and that. Standing up, the Heiress walked down the aisles of bookshelves in search of any book on cripple rehabilitation or something of the like. Weiss was so engrossed on reading the titles of the books as she walked along that she bumped into someone and the two collapsed.

"Ouch!"

"Watch it!" as Weiss pulled herself up she realized she had crashed into Velvet Scarlatina. Weiss quickly righted herself and offered her hand to the Faunus, who was about to accept the hand until she looked up and saw who owned it was, she then swatted the offered hand away.

"What was that for?" Weiss asked incredulously as the Faunus righted herself.

"I could ask you the same thing," Velvet retorted as she brushed herself off, "Why'd you crash into me?"

"I wasn't looking," Weiss admitted, "but what's your problem?"

"My problem?" Velvet crossed her arms and glared at the heiress, "Don't my ears remind you of anyone?"

"Are they supposed to?" Weiss questioned coldly.

"My sister?" Weiss simply raised an eyebrow in response, "Violet Scarlatina, one of your Father's housekeepers?"

Weiss' mind dawned in realization. Aside from the differing hair colors; Velvet was actually the spitting image of the purple haired rabbit Faunus that was a lived in maid back at her manor. The Schnee Manor had so many lived in Faunus housekeepers that Weiss had never bothered to learn their names, only identifying them by the animal traits that they had.

"Sorry, I didn't know-

"That's rich, given that you both essentially live on the same property," Velvet interrupted, "If you can call it a living when working for such a horrid man as your Father,"

"My Father is a great man!" Weiss instinctively defended her dad, even if she didn't always see eye to eye with him.

"Not from what my sister tells me," Velvet retorted, "How many siblings do you have anyway?"

"None, my mother died in childbirth!" Weiss replied quickly, she immediately regretted saying that, feeling ashamed, Velvet seemed surprised, but not for what Weiss was thinking.

"You have no Idea do you?" The bunny Faunus asked with genuine shock and surprise in her tone.

"I have no idea about what?" Weiss asked.

"Ask your father the next time you see him," Velvet retorted, and without another word, left the Heiress rooted in place and full of question.

V

Jaune waited for Weiss to show up, he looked at the clock to see that it was a quarter passed eight; she was late by a full hour. Releasing a sigh Jaune made his way back to his dorm room, thinking that Weiss didn't want his help anymore.

As he reached his dorm, he was about to open the door when he saw Weiss walking down the hallway and towards him with a scowl on her face. Thinking he'd done something wrong the knight cowered in fear, until Weiss stopped in front of him and said, "I need you to come with me to my manor over winter break,"

"Umm, Weiss I thought we'd agree that we would stay at Beacon during winter break?" Jaune questioned curiously.

"I… need to tell my father about my hand, and I figured showing would be best, that would require me going home and I doubt he'd let me return to Beacon after the talk, so you need to come with me so you can continue helping me train during the break," Weiss explained.

"I don't know if I should Weiss," Jaune began, but Weiss quickly interrupted him.

"It wasn't a request, it was a command," Weiss pointed out coldly, causing Jaune to sweat.

"Okay fine, I'll come along," Jaune conceded, "I need to bring Pyrrha with though,"

"What? Why?"

"I still need my own training Weiss," Jaune explained as he opened the door to his dorm as bid the heiress goodnight.

"Fine, just be at the airport tomorrow afternoon after classes," Weiss insisted as Jaune started closing the door.

"Yea, sure thing," Once Jaune closed the door shut he released a sigh he didn't know he was holding. He turned around to find Pyrrha standing in front of him, nearly causing him a heart attack.

"Pyrrha, don't scare me like that!" Jaune exclaimed,"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to," Pyrrha apologized as Jaune walked past her and started packing his things.

"No problem, by the way I need-

"I heard Jaune, I know you want me to come with you and Weiss," Pyrrha admitted, "You can count me in,"

Good, we leave tomorrow, after our final classes before winter break," Jaune explained as he packed his clothes into his suitcase, secretly terrified of Meeting Mr. Schnee.


	8. Sleet

**Ahhh… nice, long, Drama filled chapter.**

**Chapter 7:**

**Sleet**

_Reevaluation T minus 21 days_

Weiss tapped her foot in a mixture of impatience and nervousness as she waited at the airport. She was nervous because she was about to go see her father after being away for a whole semester. Weiss was worried about not only what he would think of her missing fingers, but also what Velvet told her, she wasn't completely sure what she was talking about, but the possibility that kept popping up in her head wasn't a pleasant one.

Drawn out of her reverie by the sight to two familiar figures carrying their suitcases with them, Weiss stopped her tapping and walked over towards Jaune and Pyrrha to greet them.

"Pyrrha, Arc," Weiss addressed them, who quickly returned their greetings. Weiss then got straight to the point, "Okay, just a few things you need to know on what to do and what not to do: first off, let me do the talking initially when we get to my home, I don't want any of you to say anything that might anger my father, if he asks you a question you'd better answer it truthfully," Weiss then thought for a moment, "Except about you being my Team Leader during the incident Arc,"

"Got it," Jaune agreed.

Weiss then continued, "Second, I need you to be as polite as possible, Pyrrha I know that will come naturally for you, but Arc, know that my father is used to proper, dignified people in his presence, so try not to act all… You,"

"Ah… Okay?" Jaune said nervously.

"Third, if you happen to see my wandering the grounds at night, do not tell my father," Weiss explained.

"Why would you be wandering the grounds at night?" Pyrrha asked.

"That also includes asking questions about me wandering the grounds at night," was all that Weiss said, "Four don't touch anything that looks more expensive than your parents yearly salary, which is probably everything you see in the manor, and five, break any of rules one through four, and my father will be the least of your worries," The Heiress eyed Jaune coldly as she said the last part. This caused the knight to swallow hard.

With the rules established, the Heiress, Spartan, and Knight boarded the dust plane headed towards Schnee Manor.

V

_Reevaluation T minus 20 days_

Jaune was once again never so happy to be on solid ground as he vomited into a nearby trashcan while Pyrrha soothed his back. The plane ride went well into the night until dawn broke the next day. Pyrrha and Weiss had managed to sleep in on the plane ride, but Jaune spent the whole night puking his guts out until only bile came out.

Once the knight felt he regained control of his stomach, he stood up and accepted the offered water bottle from his partner and took a drink to wash away the vile taste in his mouth. The two then followed Weiss out of the airport and into the cold weather as Weiss tried to hale a taxi.

Schnee Manor resided on the outskirts of an average sized town in the northern wilderness of Vytal, meaning the weather around it was appropriately cold. The fact that it was the middle of winter meant it was especially chilly and windy as snow blew into the Huntresses' and huntsman's faces. By the time Weiss found a cab, the three were already freezing; the reprieve of the cold thanks to the taxi's heater was relieving.

Apart from the local radio channel playing on the taxi's speakers, the ride was quiet and despondent. Jaune simply watched the snow covered wilderness zoom by. The scenery was beautiful to behold, but the fact of the cold gave him an eerie reminder of what got him here in the first place. Jaune looked to Weiss who was looking out the opposite window in silent contemplation, he then looked at her hand, the bandages where still one, but the nurse back at Beacon said that her wrist was almost healed thanks to her aura.

On the north side of the road, a large white gate of intricate design appeared; the Taxi driver pulled up to the gates and had the Teens pay up, then left them there in the cold. Jaune silently admired the intricacy of the gate; in the center was the Schnee crest, indicating who it belonged to. Past the gate was a two lane road lined with trees that undoubtedly led to Schnee Manor.

Weiss pressed a button next to the gates that released a loud buzzing sound, a voice then spoke through the nearby speaker, "Who is it!"

Weiss pressed a second button and spoke into the microphone, "Vlk, It's Weiss Schnee with some friends, or have you gone blind!"

"Pardon my questioning Ms. Schnee, the security cameras are down for maintenance, I'll inform your Father you're here" The voice replied as the gates opened. With that the three followed the road until they came across a large mansion that made Jaune and Pyrrha's jaws drop.

The Schnee manor was a large, four stories white building with two wings that wrapped around a central circular drive with a currently frozen fountain in the center, giving a choking presence as you walked down the drive, like the whole building was leering at you from every angle. Jaune and Pyrrha currently felt that claustrophobia even as Weiss seemed unaffected as they strolled to the large front double doors and the heiress gave a solid knock. The door opened to reveal a large, tall old man with pointed wolf ears protruding from his thin grey hair dressed in a black outfit, giving a stark contrast to the white marble of the manor.

"Welcome home Ms. Schnee, may I grab you and your friends luggage," The Faunus butler addressed Weiss.

"Of course," Weiss then turned to her friends, "Pyrrha, Jaune, this is Vlk Sivý, he's been out butler since Father was my age, Vlk, this is Pyrrha Nikos and Jaune Arc," the partners bowed their heads in respect to the butler, who politely greeted them and took their luggage and gestured them to enter.

For the second time in five minutes, Jaune and Pyrrha's Jaws dropped, for while the outside was beautiful and daunting, the inside was equally as beautiful and amazing. The foyer was a large rotunda of white marble with a large dome skyline with an intricate chandelier of glass hanging from above, various marble statues and busts stood around the edges of the room and many portraits of members of the prestigious Schnee family hung on its walls. As Jaune looked at them all he noticed that they all had the white hair and pale complexion that Weiss had, apparently very common family traits.

At the back of the foyer was a large set of stairs that went up to the back wall and split into two separate staircases that wrapped up the walls to a balcony overhead of the door. Jaune saw that at the point where the main staircase split, on the back wall was the portrait of an old man with a cold frown below a long crooked nose, angry eyes behind a pair of reading glasses, And short, white hair sporting a comb over to try and hide bald top of his head.

"Who is that?" Jaune asked as he looked to Weiss for an answer.

"That is Archibald Schnee, CEO and founder of the Schnee dust company and my Father!" Jaune saw Weiss freeze in place as a loud booming voice came from above the teens. Jaune looked up with Pyrrha to see a tall man in his early forties with white hair and strong facial features in a white tuxedo look over them from the balcony railing. The man then started walking down the steps that wrapped the rotunda as he continued to speak, "I am Gabriel Schnee, Weiss' father and direct heir to the company, while you two must be Weiss' friends, I must admit that I didn't believe her when she said she had made some at that wretched school, but I guess even a wingless bird can find a flock,"

By the time Mr. Schnee was finished talking he was now standing in front of the three teens. He then eyed his daughter from top to bottom, a cold, calculating indifference in his eyes until they noticed the bandages on Weiss' left hand, "What happened!"

Weiss then suddenly regained the ability to move as she tried to stammer out, "W-Well you see Sir-r- 'Gasp'!"

Gabriel had grabbed Weiss' broken and maimed hand in his own large, strong one and pulled it to his face to examine, cold indifference etched on his face as he studied the damage without a care for Weiss' pained cries and protests.

"You let her go!" Jaune shouted as he made a move to remove Weiss from her father's grasp, but the large man simply backhanded Jaune and knocked him flat on his bottom, Pyrrha came to help Jaune up as she pleaded for Gabriel to release Weiss. But the man didn't listen and released the hand only when he was finished examining the damage, by then Weiss had fallen to the floor with tears streaming down her face.

"You see what happens when you do foolish actions without thinking Weiss!" Gabriel scolded her terrified daughter, "You get yourself pointlessly hurt, remember I only gave consent for you to attend that pointless school because you promised me it was so you could defend yourself, lot of good that did you dolt!"

"Don't tell her that, it wasn't her fault!" Jaune shouted, and to his amazement got Mr. Schnee to stop scolding his daughter and glare at him instead.

"Come again boy!" Mr. Schnee question threateningly.

"Jaune don't," Weiss whispered.

"I was the team leader when she lost the use of her hand; I take full responsibility for what happened," Jaune spoke with as much confidence as he could muster, which wasn't much. Mr. Schnee eyed him, his face a mask to whatever was going on inside his head. Then he spoke.

"So you take full responsibility for my daughter's maiming," It wasn't a question, but a statement as Gabriel Schnee then walked up until his face was in Jaune's. The height difference meant that Jaune had to tilt his head back to look the man in the eye, "Then you will be punished with her, you will be my indentured servant, you will do everything I tell you when I tell you how I tell you. That and you will help my daughter practice with her non-dominate hand so she isn't completely useless, do we understand each other?"

Jaune nodded his head in agreement, smartly not mentioning that he was already helping Weiss with her non-dominate hand, he then noticed Mr. Schnee hold out his hand, and the teen hesitantly grasped it and shook, the man's large hand engulfing his in a vice grip. When the two released their hands from each other Jaune made to help Weiss off the ground, but Gabriel intruded, "Let her get up herself, she needs to learn to be self-reliant!"

Jaune walked as Weiss slowly pulled herself up by herself, struggling a bit with her one good hand, she refused to make eye contact with Jaune or Pyrrha. She simply soothed her throbbing wrist gingerly.

"I suggest you make yourselves at home," Mr. Schnee instructed, "Vlk, see to it our guest find the spare bedrooms,"

"Yes Sir, right away" The wolf Faunus assured as he guided Weiss, Jaune and Pyrrha up the stairs and down a nearby hallway.

"What a monster," Pyrrha muttered to herself.

"Mr. Schnee is under a lot of stress right now," Vlk simply responded without so much as looking at the Spartan, "The White Fang have been getting more and more aggressive towards the company,"

"But no Father should treat their child like that!" Pyrrha insisted, "It's wrong!"

"How Mr. Schnee does his parenting is not supposed to be my concern I'm afraid," Vlk said with a hint of sadness in his voice.

"Weiss, you alright?" Jaune asked tenderly towards the heiress.

Weiss simply stared at her aching hand as she said quietly, "I'll live; I just… forgot what he was like sometimes," she then looked up at Jaune, "why did you do it? Why did you take the fall with me?"

"To be honest, I was trying to take the fall for you, I just didn't want him to hurt you," Jaune admitted. At that moment they turned a corner and Weiss froze again, Jaune looked to where she was looking and saw a purple haired rabbit Faunus in about her mid-twenties wearing a maid outfit busy dusting a bust of Weiss' Grandfather.

"Ms. Violet, I thought you were still on leave?" Vlk called to the maid, who jumped as she didn't notice the company. As she turned her head to look at them, Jaune was surprised to see that she looked a lot like Velvet Scarlatina, and not just because of the rabbit ears, though she was sporting a mostly healed black eye, the open one showed the deep brown that Velvet had as well.

"I was told to get back to work least the Mr. Schnee fire me," Violet then noticed Weiss, then Jaune and Pyrrha, "Welcome back Ms. Schnee, who are your friends?"

Weiss seemed to snap out of her stupor and quickly gave introduction.

"Jaune and Pyrrha? My, what lovely names," The rabbit Faunus complimented before she went back to dusting the bust, "I'm terribly sorry but I truly must get back to work, perhaps we can talk later?"

"Yea… I'd actually like that Violet," Weiss said uncertainly, much to the shock of the maid.

"Y-Yea, of course," Violet replied.

"Say, where do you sleep, maybe I can visit later tonight?" Weiss asked and offered.

"Of course, and I sleep where all the servant sleep," Violet explained, "At the lodge in the backyard,"

Pyrrha put her hands to her mouth to try and stifle her horrified gasp. Jaune shuffled his feet while Weiss felt impossibly guilty.

"Now I'm sorry Ms. Schnee but I must really get back to work," Violet said as she finished dusting the bust and continued on to do her chores.

"If you'll follow me, I'll show you to my sleeping quarters for tonight," Vlk said as he gestured for the teens to follow him, they soon came to a door and he opened it to reveal a large bedroom that but the Dorms back at Beacon to shame, and it was a guest room!

This will be Ms. Nikos' room," Vlk explained as he placed Pyrrha's luggage by the foot of the queen sized bed, "now if you'll follow me Mr. Arc, your room is across the hall.

The room as was just as big as Pyrrha's. Vlk simply placed Jaune's luggage at the foot of the bed before bidding him good day and told them that Lunch will be served in an hour.

Jaune walked over to the beds and felt the fabric; it was white and soft like silk, which I probably was. Jaune lay down on the sheets on his back and stared up at the canopy as he digested his first meeting with Weiss' Father. He turned out to be everything Jaune thought he'd be only a thousand times worse. Who hurts and punishes their daughter for getting injured and forces her friend into indentured servitude? It truly sickened Jaune that Weiss had to live with the monster as her father.

'_This is going to be a tough three winter break,'_ Jaune thought as he rolled onto his side and soon drifted to sleep in the soft white sheets.


	9. Snowflake

**Chapter 8:**

**Snowflake**

_Reevaluation T minus 20 days_

It was late evening as Weiss got ready to go outside. She pulled on her winter coat and a scarf to help keep her warm as she tried to think about what to ask Violet about her Father. She wasn't entirely sure what she should ask as she had no idea what the problem was, except that her father had done something terrible. She admitted that keeping Faunus labor wasn't exactly politically correct in these times; but they were paid for and given a roof over their heads. Which is more than some could ask for. So Weiss could only assume that something wasn't right; something that probably went beyond the usual expectations of serving a prestigious family with a temper.

Weiss winced as she tried to pull on the left sleeve of her coat. The pain in her wrist bringing up the memory of what her father had done not five minutes after she returned home. She admitted that her father physically abused her on stressful days. But he never did something as cruel as grip a broken wrist. Punishment had used to be nothing more than a slap across the face and a stern lecture on what was expected by the Schnee family.

Weiss then thought about Violet's black eye, and wondered if she had caught her father on one of his stressful days and punished her for it.

'_Vlk said she was on leave, so why would Father punish Violet and give her a break from work, it makes no sense,'_ Weiss thought as she left her bedroom and headed out to the servant lodge.

The Schnee Manor always had an eerie feeling about it at night. But Weiss had grown up in the manor her whole life so she was used to the feeling as she reached the foyer and walked down the stairs. She paused at the large portrait of her Grandfather, his usual scowl eternally present in the image. Weiss could almost feel the eyes of the portrait watching her with disdain as she headed for the front door and walked out into the cold.

Weiss hugged herself as the cold enveloped her. She didn't plan on being out here long so she walked briskly around the manor and to the back were the wooden lodge resided. It was lightly snowing as little snowflakes harmlessly fell to the earth in a dance of white specks. Weiss held out her hand and watched as the frozen water fell onto the palm and melt away.

Once she reached the lodge she gave the door a sharp knock; hoping that someone was still up. Luckily her prayers were answered as Vlk Sivý answered the door.

"Ms. Schnee, may I ask why you are up so late in the cold?" The wolf Faunus asked incredulously as he ushered her into the warmth of the lodge.

"I need to talk to Violet Scarlatina, if she's still up," Weiss said as he left the Heiress alone in the lodge. It wasn't horribly built by any means. The place was a two story building with a main foyer, living room and kitchen on the main floor and sleeping accommodations on the second. The place was colder than Schnee manor, but not uncomfortably so. A fireplace with some chairs burned in the back of the foyer. Weiss removed her scarf and coat before talking a seat in front of the fire; at which point Vlk returned with Violet who was dressed in a simple sleeping gown.

"I apologize for keeping you waiting Ms. Schnee," Violet apologized with a bow, but Weiss waved it off.

"I should be apologizing, you look like you were about to sleep," Weiss offered with a wave of her hand for Violet to take the spare seat beside her.

"You're too kind Ms. Schnee," Violet complemented as she look the chair, "So you wanted to talk to me about something?"

"How is working for my Father?" Weiss asked, "I realize I lived here my whole life and I never even got to know the people working here,"

Violet seemed nervous as she said, "Oh… um, well working with him has been an exceptional opportunity-

"I want you're _honest_ opinion, even if it puts my family in an ill light," Weiss demanded, "I promise not to tell my father what we talk about,"

Violet glanced back at the door she had come from, as though something worried her or needed her attention, "I'm sorry Ms. Schnee, but I don't think I should,"

"What do you mean you don't think you should?" Weiss demanded.

"It might anger you," Violet admitted with a downcast of her eyes.

"I'll be angry if you don't tell me!" Weiss demanded, but then she realized the tears coming down the Faunus' eyes, "I'm sorry I shouldn't have been so demanding,"

Violet gently rubbed her eyes of her tears, being careful of her bruised eye.

"Did he do that to you?" Weiss asked gently. Violet simply nodded her head in agreement, so Weiss pressed a little further, "Why were you on leave? In fact, now that I think about it, I haven't seen you in a year,"

"That's because I was on leave for a year," Violet admitted, she glanced back at the doorway she had come from again.

"Violet," Weiss asked kindly as she placed her good hand on the Faunus' own hand to try and calm her, "Why were you on leave?"

Violet looked Weiss in the eye, guilt and fear ridden across her face, "It was an agreement between your father and me, that I'd have time to focus at the situation at hand without distraction, and… so you wouldn't find out,"

Now Weiss was truly curious, "Find out what?"

Violet squeeze Weiss' hand as she looked her in the eye, "First, you must swear that you won't tell your father about our meeting, or anything that transpired here tonight, understand?"

"I promise-

"A Promise isn't good enough, I need you to swear that I have your word, that you won't tell him," Violet squeezed Weiss' hand so hard she was cutting off circulation in the heiress' hand.

"I swear, he will never find out," Weiss promised with a reassuring squeeze of Violet's hand, "now please, tell me what it is,"

Violet released Weiss' hand and stood up as she said, "It's best if I show you," the Faunus then gestured for the heiress to follow. The two walked through the doorway Violet had come through and went up the stairs that it led to. They soon came to a hallway with many doors on both sides. Violet stopped at the third one to the left, opened the door, and told Weiss to wait in the hall.

Weiss waited patiently for a minute before Violet reopened the door holding bundle of cloth carefully nestled in her arms. She adjusted the blankets so Weiss could get a look at what was inside. Where she found a small, pink, pudgy face, atop of the head were two tiny rabbit ears fuzzed with white hair. Soon the baby opened its aquamarine eyes and smiled sweetly at Weiss. But the heiress was mortified.

"Wha- who is this?" Weiss asked worriedly, fearing the answer.

"This is my daughter, Aqua Schnee," Violet told the heiress, "Your half-sister,"


	10. Cold Shoulder

**I find the title of this chapter to be very appropriate given how it ends.**

**Chapter 9:**

**Cold Shoulder**

_Reevaluation T minus 20 days_

At first the answer didn't click into Weiss' thoughts, it took her a delayed second for the gravity of what she was told to take effect. She stared wide-eyed at the baby with the toothless grin who was oblivious to the distress she was causing Weiss by simply existing; clueless to the fact that pumping through her tiny veins was the same blood as the Heiress'.

"My… half-sister?" Was all Weiss could mutter as she stepped away from Violet and the little white haired, blue eyed bunny Faunus that terrified her.

"Yes, I'm so sorry," Violet apologized. But Weiss was running before she even finished the small sentence. Weiss simply ran and ran, she went down the stairs and through the foyer and out into the cold. She didn't care where she was heading. Weiss just wanted to get away from everything; her maimed hand, her abusive father, her half-sister, all of it.

She eventually tripped on a surfaced root by a tall tree at the side of the house. Falling face first into the ground and simply wept into the snow. She eventually righted herself into a sitting position and lay up against the tree and cried her heart out. Years of pent up misery finally pouring out of her in waves of sobs, tears, and shaking.

After five minutes of sitting the cold crying her heart out, she heard the sound of snow crunching beneath snow boots. Weiss didn't bother to look up as the stranger came closer and closer until she could see his boots in the snow in front of her. Then a gentle hand placed itself on her shoulder. Only then did Weiss look up with watery eyes to see Jaune standing over her, his face full of concern.

"How did you find me?" Weiss demanded in a hoarse voice from the sobbing.

"I heard you from my window," Jaune said as he pointed towards said window on the side of the house, "What's wrong?"

"What isn't wrong right now?" Weiss muttered miserably as Jaune helped her to her feet and guided her back to the manor. Once they got in the large house they made for Weiss' bedroom and Jaune placed her in her lounge chair in front of her personal fireplace. He then grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around her to keep her warm. Afterwards the knight simply took a seat in the chair besides the one Weiss occupied in silence.

After a few minutes, Jaune had to ask, "So what happened?"

"It's none of your business, Arc" Weiss muttered in a defeated tone, holding none of the ire that usually accompanied her voice. Her eyes stared into the fire; the expressions on her face showing nothing but worry.

"Weiss, I know we aren't friends, heck I'm not even on a first name basis with you, but as your training partner I need to know what happened, and if it will affect our training," Weiss turned her gaze from the fire and looked him in the eye as she explained what happened.

V

Jaune quietly listened as Weiss explained everything; from the conversation with Velvet in the library back at Beacon to discovering Violet's daughter and Weiss' half-sister. Once Weiss was finished Jaune released a sigh as he thought of what to say that would help the heiress, knowing that most of what he would say would most likely anger her, Jaune simply said what he thought was the safest response, "I'm sorry,"

"You're sorry for what exactly?" Weiss stated disinterestedly, "You're not the cruel father that hid his youngest daughter from his older one,"

"No, Weiss, I'm not," Jaune then stood up, "But I'm here for you if you need me,"

The knight then walked for the door to leave when Weiss spoke up, "Why do you do it?"

"Huh?" Jaune asked as he put his hand on the doorknob.

"Why do you always help me when you know I won't do the same for you?" Weiss admitted, "I don't get it,"

Jaune smiled warmly and reassuringly at the Heiress as he said, "If you really don't know why, then I'm not the only one that's clueless, goodnight Weiss,"

With that, Jaune left Weiss alone in her room, with nothing but the echoes of his parting words to accompany her. She looked back at the flames burning in the fireplace before deciding to get some rest. As Weiss drifted to sleep, she had never felt more alone.

V

_Reevaluation T minus 19 days_

Pyrrha had never felt more rested then she had that morning thanks to the comfort of the sheets and mattress. But that didn't remove her guilty feelings as she remembered where she was; knowing that the Faunus probably had much less comfortable beds to sleep on. She pulled herself out of bed and went to the adjoining rest room to fulfill her ablutions before getting dressed. She had no idea where the dining room was so she decided to simply explore the manor, silently admiring the artwork on the walls as she wandered.

Soon she found herself lost in the manor. Cursing herself mentally for not paying attention to where she was going; Pyrrha looked around for someone to help guild here back to a familiar part of the manor when she heard voices further down the hallway.

As the Spartan drew closer she knew that it was an argument given the raised voices. Though she couldn't understand what was being said, it sounded quite heated. She could make out that it was between a man and a woman given the differing pitches in tone in the voices.

Pyrrha soon found the source of the argument behind a door as she slowly opened it to find Mr. Schnee arguing with Violet from behind a desk.

"-don't want to discuss this anymore- who opened the door!" Gabriel Schnee shouted upon seeing Pyrrha at the threshold.

"I-I'm so sorry Sir, I didn't mean to interrupt, I got lost and-

"Never mind," Gabriel interrupted, "We were just finished with our discussion, isn't that right Ms. Scarlatina?"

"Y-Yes sir," Violet said dejectedly, she then swiftly made her way past Pyrrha and out into the hall.

"Is there something you wanted Ms.?" Mr. Schnee asked, snapping Pyrrha's attention from Violet to Weiss' father.

"Nikos Sir, Pyrrha Nikos," The Spartan introduced herself.

"Nikos? As in the great Huntsmen Gerasimos Nikos?" Mr. Schnee asked, genuinely curious.

"Yea, he's my Grandpa Geras," Pyrrha admitted, "You know him?"

"No, but I know of him," Mr. Schnee stated as he took a seat behind his desk and gestured for Pyrrha to sit in the chair across the desk. Which the Spartan hesitantly took, "You're grandfather and my father met once or twice, helped defend one of his first mines from a large pack of Beowolves before the SDC became large enough to hire its own private security,"

"He never told me that," Pyrrha admitted.

"No?" Mr. Schnee asked incredulously as he reached into his desk and produced a bottle of scotch and two shot glasses.

"No, he was never one to talk about his missions," Pyrrha said as she eyed the glasses suspiciously.

"How modest of him," Schnee said as he poured some of the alcohol into the shot glasses, then offered one to Pyrrha, who politely waved it off.

"Sorry Mr. Schnee, but I'm under-aged,"

"My mistake," Mr. Schnee said as he downed a shot, "and please, call me Gabriel, a Friend of Weiss is a friend of mine,"

"Um… sure, Gabriel," Pyrrha said nervously, she and her friends first meeting with Mr. Schnee yesterday fresh in her mind.

"So… what's a lovely lady such as yourself doing at Beacon?" Mr. Schnee asked as he poured another shot of scotch.

"What else, to become a huntress like my grandfather," Pyrrha admitted.

"You any good?" he asked as he downed another shot.

"I'm alright," Pyrrha stated modestly.

"Oh come on now," Gabriel stated in disbelief, "You're the Granddaughter of the great Gerasimos Nikos, you've got to be at least exceptionally talented," As he said this, he stood up and walked around to the front of the desk and leaned against it as he loomed over Pyrrha who was still sitting in the chair. Needless to say, Pyrrha felt quite nervous and uncomfortable.

"Uh… thank you very much, Gabriel, but I very much should be going," Pyrrha said nervously as she stood up, "I should find Jaune and help him with his training and-

Pyrrha's voice trailed off as she turned to leave. It was then that she felt Gabriel's hand brush up against her bare shoulder. She immediately panicked and shoved the hand off and ran for the door and out into the hallway. It was not until she had turned down several corners did she dare stop and check if she was behind pursued. Luckily she found no one from the way she came. Pyrrha allowed a shiver to crawl up her spine as she remembered Mr. Schnee' touch.

It was cold as ice.


	11. Avalanche

**Let me start by saying that statistically, at the time of submitting this chapter, Thaw the Ice is my second most popular story, and my fastest story ever in terms of growing popularity. So thank you for making this story a major success by my standards. I hope that I can continue satisfying your needs for a good story. **

**Chapter 10:**

**Avalanche**

_Reevaluation T minus 19 days_

Jaune had been training with Pyrrha for a full semester. By now he had learned her movements and patterns. He could predict her feints and attack maneuvers, and knew how quickly and how much strength she would put into each swing. So it was as clear as day to him that she wasn't putting her all in today's training session.

"Are you alright, Pyrrha?" Jaune asked, seemingly snapping the Spartan from a reverie she was occupied with.

"Huh?" she asked.

"This was the ninth time in a row I've successfully disarmed you with ease," Jaune pointed out, "I don't think your head is in the game,"

"Yea, sorry I was preoccupied thinking about… ah…" Pyrrha began, not wanting to tell Jaune about Mr. Schnee and his 'advances'. So she put on a fake smile and quickly said, "Nothing, nothing important anyway,"

"You always say that when there's something important," Jaune pointed out knowingly, "I'm not as clueless as I was at the beginning of the school year,"

"Jaune, trust me, it's nothing you need concern yourself with," Pyrrha insisted.

"Then tell me what it is and I promise I won't concern myself with it," Jaune demanded. Putting Pyrrha in a corner as they both knew that she was a terrible liar.

"I… was thinking about Rena and Nora, and how sad it is that they don't realize each other's true feelings for one another," Pyrrha lied, Jaune wasn't convinced.

"So you're getting distracted from sparring, something you excel at by the way, because of Ren and Nora being clueless about each other's feelings?" Jaune pointed out.

"Look Jaune, please don't get involved if I tell you the truth?" Pyrrha pleaded. Jaune released a sigh as he nodded in agreement. Then it was Pyrrha's turn to sigh as she closed her eyes and admitted, "Mr. Schnee was… making unwanted advances towards me,"

When Pyrrha opened her eyes she saw Jaune's expression go from confusion, to realization, to pure anger and hatred, all within the span of a second. He then silently turned around and headed out of the sparring room to do who knows what. Pyrrha immediately followed suit.

"Jaune, please don't do anything rash!" Pyrrha pleaded as she struggled to keep up with his brisk pace. He then suddenly turned around to look Pyrrha in the eye with determination and anger.

"That lecherous creep needs to pay Pyrrha!" Jaune shouted, his voice bouncing through the marble hallways, "He gets Violet pregnant with Weiss' half-sister and he's already looking at you to give him more children! No, I'm telling that creep a peace of my mind, and Crocea Mors is going to be my voice!"

"Jaune wait- what?!" Pyrrha interrupted herself as part of Jaune's complaints rang in her ears, "Weiss has a half-sister!"

"Yea, a three month old baby," Jaune pointed out as he turned around and resumed his march to find Weiss' Father. Pyrrha quickly ran in front of him and stopped him in his tracks.

"Jaune, you still can't do this!"

"Watch me Pyrrha," Jaune stated right before his face met Akoúo, knocking him out cold.

V

Weiss was simply lying in bed, her mind lost in her own misery as she heard someone knock on her door. She raised her head and gave consent for whoever it was to enter the room. The heiress turned her back to the individual upon seeing who it was.

"Ms. Schnee, can we please talk?" Weiss heard Violet ask nervously from the doorway. She refused to give the maid an answer, "Look, I know you must hate me right now, but I promise it was none of my intentions to-

"Is that supposed to make me feel any better?" Weiss interrupted, "'It was none of your intentions' that means that my Father is a rapist as well as disrespectful to my mother's memory!"

"Weiss, your mother is gone," Violet pointed out.

"You think I don't know that!" Weiss screamed as she finally turned to face the Faunus, "There isn't a day I don't regret ever being born! My father makes sure of that; I killed my mother by being born and he insists on reminding me that I'm a failure to the Schnee name, that he lost something perfect in his life in return for a disgrace! And all along it turns out he doesn't miss his long dead wife at all if he's got you to warm his bed!"

Once Weiss finished her tirade she stopped to catch her breath and calm herself. She then noticed Violet's expression: guilt, sadness, and sympathy. The rabbit Faunus then said, "He does miss her Ms. Schnee, and it was her name he drunkenly whispered into my ears that night, not mine,"

Violet left Weiss alone in the room, not sure what to think of this new piece of information; but before she could dwell on it any longer, another knock sounded on her door. Weiss begrudgingly allowed whoever was to enter, and found Pyrrha carrying a passed out Jaune over her shoulder walk in.

"What happened?" Weiss asked incredulously as the Spartan placed the unconscious knight in one of the lounge chairs by Weiss' personal fireplace.

"I knocked him out," Pyrrha admitted.

"Why exactly?" The heiress demanded.

"He would have attacked your father had I not," The Spartan elaborated.

"And why would he-"

"Because he was making an advance on me," As Pyrrha admitted this; Weiss felt she was going to be sick, "And… I know about your half-sister Weiss,"

"What! How?"

"Jaune told me in a fit of rage," Pyrrha explained as she looked down at the floor.

"That's it! We're leaving!" Weiss announced as she reached for her suitcase and started packing.

"What? Where?" Pyrrha asked in confusion.

"Back to beacon, your house, Menagerie for all I care," Weiss ranted, "I've had enough of my father to last a lifetime," Once Weiss finished packing she told Pyrrha to pack her and Jaune's stuff and meet her at the property gate. Weiss then grabbed Myrtenaster in her good hand and went off to go find Violet, for she refused to have the Faunus and her half-sister suffer under her father's rule.

Weiss soon found Vlk and immediately asked where Violet went. The wolf Faunus said that she had gone back to the servant's lodge to look after Aqua. So Weiss immediately ran out into the cold noon without a jacket to get to Violet. She barged into the lodge and found a horrid sight.

Violet Scarlatina lay on the ground with her throat slashed, dead.

Fearing the worst, Weiss ran upstairs and into Violet's room and found a tall figure in a black jacket with the white fang logo on the back standing over the crib. The figure had spikey red hair with bull horns. The sound of the baby crying vibrated through the room.

"Get away from her!" Weiss shouted, drawing the tall Faunus' attention from the crib to look at Weiss through his white eye mask intricately detailed with red markings.

Before the murderer could react, Weiss summoned an Ice glyph and incased him in a block of ice. She then ran to the crib and picked Aqua up into her arms and hurried out. The bull Faunus was struggling to get out of his icy prison.

Weiss had never ran so fast in her life, clutching her crying sister in her arms as she made her way around the manor and down the driveway where she saw Pyrrha and a now conscious Jaune waiting for her by a car with Vlk in the passenger seat.

"Weiss, where's Violet!" Pyrrha asked as she noticed the Faunus' absence with Weiss holding the baby.

"A member of the White Fang murdered her, we have to go!" Weiss shouted as she reached the pair.

"Oh God!" Jaune shouted as he pointed from where Weiss had come from, the others looked to see the tall Faunus charging towards them.

"Get in!" Vlk shouted as he honked the horn. Needing no further prompting; Weiss, Jaune and Pyrrha got into the car right before Vlk drove them through the gate and onto the main road.

As they drove down the road; they noticed a truck behind them. It was gaining speed and soon drove into the next lane and started bashing into them. They saw that White Fang goons were driving the truck.

"Wait here!" Pyrrha shouted as she readied her weapon, Milo, and climbed out of the window and onto the roof of the car. By then the truck had managed to overtake the car and was in front of them. The trailer opened up to reveal twenty or so White Fang Goons armed with swords.

Pyrrha opened fire with Milo at the goons as they pounced atop the car. Forcing the Huntress to switch Milo to its Xiphos mode and enter a melee, knocking them off of the car swiftly and gracefully with her strikes.

Weiss soon noticed another truck fast approaching them; also with White Fang aboard. She handed Aqua over to Jaune as she stuck her head and arm out of the window. She immediately summoned a glyph in front of the moving car. Once the vehicle collided with the glyph its front end caved in as though it had hit a brick wall. The truck swerved out of control and rolled off the road.

But the fight wasn't over yet, Pyrrha still had a dozen Goons to fight atop the car and a motorcycle with the red headed bull Faunus chasing after them. Weiss shot spell after spell at the motorcycle, but the red haired Faunus simply weaved out of the weapon's projectiles.

He soon caught up and jumped off his bike and onto the car roof. Jaune quickly passed Aqua back to Weiss and climbed out through the window to help Pyrrha.

The melee was brutal; goons were still jumping atop the car as Pyrrha and Jaune fought them off while dealing with the bull Faunus. Who was armed with a katana and a rifle that he used with great efficiency.

Weiss, while still holding her sister, reached out with her free hand and froze the truck wheel with Myrtenaster, making the vehicle swerve out of the way and off the road. Soon it was just the Bull Faunus versus Pyrrha and Jaune.

While the Faunus had the upper hand in experience, Pyrrha and Jaune were partners, and have been for a full semester, they worked together as a team, with Jaune blocking attacks and Pyrrha weaving in for the strikes. Soon Jaune hand bashed the Bull to the edge of the car with his shield. Pyrrha then shifted Milo to its rifle form and shot the bull right in the face, shattering his mask and knocking him off the car and onto the road.

The rest of the drive into the city was uneventful, then soon reached the airport and Vlk bid them goodbye and good luck. The teens had insisted that he come with them, but he said that he needed to see if Schnee manor was still standing. So the teens paid for their tickets and got onto the earliest plane to Jaune's hometown.

It wasn't until they were on the plane and it took off did Jaune ask, "What was all that about?"

Weiss looked at the now motherless baby sleeping in her arms as she tried to find an answer for Jaune.

But found none.


	12. Snow-blind

**Chapter 11:**

**Snow-blind**

_Reevaluation T minus 18 days_

Weiss stared at her reflection in the mirror. Though she knew it was only minutes, it felt like hours as she examined every detail of her face, from her eye scar to her offset ponytail. She soon took a deep breath, knowing that with her next action there would be no going back. She gripped her ponytail, brought Myrtenaster's blade to its base, and gave a swift stroke.

As the blade sliced through hair, her head unraveled in a short mess of white locks. Weiss silently inspected her now short hair before moving onto the next step, dying her hair.

She selected a turquoise blue color, figuring it best fit her while still changing her appearance, and applied the dye to her hair. Once she was finished she inspected herself, already she didn't recognized the person looking back at her. But she still needed to take care of one thing.

She applied makeup on her eye to hide the scar.

Once she was finished, Weiss walked out of the restroom at the restaurant and went out front to meet up with Jaune and Pyrrha. Both of which were currently feeding Aqua with a baby bottle they had gotten at a nearby store.

"How do I look?" Weiss asked critically.

"Gorgeous," Jaune immediately responded; Weiss simply rolled her eyes.

"The point is do I look different enough that people won't recognize me?" Weiss pointed out.

"If I were a stranger, I wouldn't peg you for a Schnee," Pyrrha offered helpfully as she continued feeding Aqua.

"That's good, how was finding baby supplies at the store?" Weiss asked curiously as the trio walked down the street.

"Embarrassing," Jaune quickly replied.

"Come on Jaune, It wasn't that bad?" Pyrrha countered.

"You didn't see the dirty looks everyone in the store was giving me!" Jaune complained, "We were two teenagers with a baby, so what do you think they all assumed?"

Pyrrha blushed as the unspoken assumption popped up in her head, "Yea… I can see how that would be embarrassing,"

"ANYWAY…" Weiss interrupted, trying to move things along, "Now we need to get to your Parent's house, mind leading us there?"

"Sure, it's on the other side of town, so let's get a cab," Jaune stated as they did just that. The ride was quiet as Aqua had fallen asleep after she was finished with the bottle. Weiss watched out the window as they game up to a farm on the outskirts of town. The cab then dropped them off.

"You live on a farm?" Weiss said with open disgust as she looked around.

"Yea, ever since my Father retired from being a huntsman," Jaune explained as they walked up to the house and Jaune rang the doorbell. The door was soon answered by a tall man that was the spitting image of Jaune with large muscles and an unshaven jawline. His eyes held a jovial light as he instantly recognized his son and pulled him into a tight bear hug, much to the protest of Jaune's lungs.

"Kiddo!" Mr. Arc roared with delight, "So good to see ya again,"

"Dad… can't… breathe…" Jaune managed to squeak out before his father released him; he then noticed Weiss and Pyrrha. A mischievous glint appeared in his eyes as he nudged Jaune in the ribs with his elbow.

"I see ya took my advice to heart and…" Mr. Arc drew silent as he noticed the baby in Pyrrha's arms, his voice then took on a serious tone as he said, "Jaune, I don't recall you being gone that long,"

"Wha- no! It's not mine!" Jaune immediately stammered out, "But it is why we're where,"

"Well come on in, don't want ya to freeze to death," Mr. Arc insisted as he ushered them in. he had Weiss and Pyrrha wait in the living room as he guided Jaune to the kitchen so the knight could explain the situation.

Weiss took a seat in the nearby lounge chair while Pyrrha took the couch. The heiress looked around the room, finding a number of pictures of the family as well as hunting trophies hanging on the walls. The room had an old fashioned feeling about it. It was an incredibly far cry from her manor, which had been spotless and grand, while the Arc home was simple and lived in.

The two waited for a few minutes, hearing muffled words coming from the kitchen until Jaune returned with his father.

"Jaune told me about the situation," Mr. Arc stated, his voice and expression very grim, "I must say it's quite a tale, ya can stay here for the remainder of winter break, I'm sure the missus won't mind, would probably enjoy the company really,"

"Thank you very much Mr. Arc," Pyrrha thanked.

"Please, names Josep Arc," The man introduced.

"Pyrrha Nikos," Pyrrha replied.

"Nice to meet ya," Josep then turned to Weiss, "Then ya must be Weiss then?"

Weiss nodded in acknowledgement.

"Well, anyway, the missus is out shopping, I'll tell her what's going on when she gets back, in the meantime, make ya'selves at home," Josep then turned to Jaune, "Son, go show ya friends to the guest room, I'll get the old crib out for the little one,"

With that Josep went off to find the crib, Weiss noticed that Josep walked with a limp.

"Now, if you two will follow me," Jaune suggested as he led Pyrrha and Weiss down the hall and up a flight of stairs. He soon led then to the guest room, which had two twin sized beds.

This is where you two will be sleeping, I know it's not much compared to Schnee Manor's guest rooms, but it will do," Jaune admitted modestly.

"It's perfectly fine Jaune, right Weiss?" Pyrrha questioned.

"Yea… it will do," Weiss said as she walked into the room and laid down on one of the beds without another word. Jaune and Pyrrha figured it best to leave Weiss alone to her thoughts as they left the room and closed the door.

V

Jaune's mother soon returned from shopping. She was quickly told the situation at hand, and told them that they could stay as long as they need.

Mrs. Arc was a short woman with brown hair, deep blue eyes and a kind smile. Jaune watched as her mother bonded with Pyrrha immediately and swooned over Aqua. Weiss was still sulking by herself in the guest room so they haven't met yet.

Weiss didn't come out the whole day, not even for dinner. Jaune was growing increasingly worried for the heiress, but his mother had insisted that he not disturb her, saying that she needed time to think. Given that her whole world came crashing down, Jaune respected Weiss' privacy.

It was getting late by the time everyone decided to get some sleep. Pyrrha insisted on staying up a little longer so it fell to Jaune to put Aqua to bed. The knight carried the sleeping baby with bunny ears up the stairs and to the guest room, where his father had set up the crib shortly after Weiss occupied it, and quietly opened the door. Light form the hall spilled into the room, illuminating the sleeping figure in an almost ethereal glow as Jaune carried Aqua to the crib and gently placed her inside.

Jaune stared at the sleeping Faunus for a few seconds, feeling impossibly sad that the little one no longer had a mother to care for her. He wondered about the child's future. Who would raise her and take care of her? Jaune thought about the only family Aqua had, which was Weiss, Velvet Scarlatina, and Gabriel Schnee.

Gabriel was completely out of the question, the cruel man would simply abuse her if not outright murder the child. Jaune thought about velvet, but the poor Faunus might not have even heard about her sister's fate. What kind of situation would that be to tell someone that they lost their sister and inherited her daughter while still in school? Weiss was in a similar situation with the added wrinkle of having no home anymore. And from the looks of her, was in quite a crisis right now. Jaune briefly thought about foster care. But he immediately went against it as a Faunus in foster care likely wouldn't find a good home easily.

And that brought Jaune to his final option; to try and convince his parents to adopt the baby. His parents weren't judgmental or racist people, far from it, but he didn't know if they'd be willing to risk themselves by adopting someone who was both a member of the Schnee family and a Faunus. That was a dangerous combination to have as the White Fang could recruit the child and use her against the SDC.

"Arc?" a sleepy voice asked form behind Jaune. He turned around to see Weiss looking at him through tired and bloodshot eyes. Obviously she had been crying, "What are you doing in here?"

"Just putting Aqua to bed," Jaune said, "Are you alright?"

"No, not really," Weiss admitted exhaustedly, "Everything's so messed up,"

"Yea…" was all Jaune could say.

Weiss then looked passed Jaune and at the crib, "What are we to do with her?"

Jaune looked back at the baby sleeping behind him and said honestly, "I was just thinking of having my parents adopt her,"

"Arc, you can't do that," said Weiss as she stood up, "My father will find her and put you and your family in danger, or the White Fang will find her and kill you,"

"I'll take the risk," Jaune stated.

"What? But you can't," Weiss pleaded.

"But I will Weiss," Jaune insisted. Jaune watched as Weiss stared at him all confused.

"Why?"

"What?" Jaune replied, confused to what Weiss was asking.

"Why would you risk yourself for me and Aqua? Why did you take the fall for me when my father found out about my hand? Why did you offer to help me train my remaining hand? I just don't understand it," As Weiss said this Jaune silently listened. It wasn't until she was finished did Jaune speak.

"You know Weiss," Jaune began as he placed a hand on her cheek. The heiress instinctively put her hand on his wrist to remove it, but she found herself unwilling to move his hand away. Jaune then continued, "For someone so brilliant, you can be so blind when it comes to other people's feelings,"

Jaune then leaned his head forward and placed his lips against hers. Even though it was a gentle, chaste kiss; Weiss was still shocked by what was happening, but soon fell into it as well, and kissed him back.

Jaune slowly removed his lips of Weiss' as he placed his forehead against hers and whispered, "That is why,"

And with that, Jaune took his leave, leaving a stunned heiress who didn't regain her senses until he had left. Weiss took a deep breath and went back to bed. As she lay there with her eyes growing heavy, she realized something.

Her entire world had been flipped upside down; she lost her hand, a potential friend, and her family. But she finally didn't feel alone anymore.

She finally felt accepted.


End file.
